It is well known that many fires are caused by failures in electrical wiring. Frequently, faulty wiring will generate heat long before the ignition temperature of the surrounding structure is reached. Circuit breakers do not prevent a fire in this situation because the current flowing through the fault is not great enough to trip a standard breaker.
Furthermore, conventional fire detection systems are also inadequate because they only detect the byproducts of combustion, such as smoke and intense heat. The localized heat rise in failing wiring typically goes undetected until after a fire has started.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a system capable of detecting heat rises due to faulty wiring before a fire actually breaks out. The system described herein accomplishes this result by detecting such heat increases, pinpointing the locations, providing an alarm, and providing means to extinguish any fire that does occur.